NEW The first pictures have emerged of Michelle (right) as a young woman before she was kidnapped - at a time when she endured an often troubled relationship with her family. Her mother Barbara (left) said that after Michelle vanished from Cleveland in 2002, some people suggested she had run away after her son had been taken from her. The mother and daughter have not yet been reunited.

Sir Alex Ferguson will end his 27-year tenure as Manchester United manager at the end of the season it was announced today. After much speculation, the club confirmed in a statement that the most successful manager in British history is to become a director and ambassador of the club following his 1,500th game in charge against West Brom on May 18. Sir Alex, 71, has won 49 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues crowns during his reign. He said this morning that he wanted to leave the club in the 'strongest possible shape' and paid tribute to his wife Cathy (pictured top right) . The Scotsman is pictured celebrating the club's 2008 Champions League victory (bottom right) and wearing the club's colours upon his appointment in 1986 (bottom left).

Richard Dart's wife gave birth to a baby girl 12 weeks premature, according to his brother Robb Leech, but soon afterwards the child's father was jailed for preparing acts of terrorism. Filmmaker Mr Leech also described how Dart convinced him that he had renounced terror - only to be caught planning to team up with the Taliban and assassinate British spy chiefs.

This image of a 'half-cat', apparently caught by a Google Streetview camera, has gone viral as millions try to establish if is a new cat species, a ghoulish scientific experiment gone wrong, or a picture prank. The white creature, with only two legs, a tail and no ears, was supposedly captured wandering down a street in Ottawa, Canada, but is in fact a photoshopped picture.

One of Michael Jackson's friends that testified that he was not molested by the pop superstar has now changed his story as he fights for money from Jackson's estate. Wade Robson, one of the top music choreographers who has worked with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, got to know Michael Jackson decades ago when he began going for sleepovers at the Neverland Ranch.

Former Royal Navy sailor Elwood McIlwraith (centre and left), 29, who described himself as a 'massive sports player and into everything from football to athletics', fell from the 42-storey Laguna Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers district. Dubai police are investigating. Mr McIlwraith, from Kingston-upon-Hull, East Yorkshire, had just married his partner Susie (pictured right) on February 21 this year

Tiny one-year-old Kayla and her elder brother, Malan (pictured), have formed an extraordinary bond with the two creatures after growing up with them in their home in the Western Cape of South Africa. The pair think nothing of sharing their toys with the two cheetahs - affectionately known as Wakuu and Skyla.

Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm at the age of thirteen after a shark attack, confirmed her engagement to Adam Dirks. Hamilton, 23, the woman behind the book and film 'Soul Surfer' gushes about her fiance, whom she met when the two jumped off a cliff together in Hawaii.

NEW Gardener Joe Poultney donates hundreds of pounds made from the sale of his flowers to a local children's hospice and his village church in Barlaston, Staffordshire. But he was stunned when bureaucrats from Stafford Borough Council ordered him to stop selling the plants - claiming the vibrant display distracted motorists.

A video uploaded to YouTube shows a man at a gym - apparently unaware that he is being filmed - spinning and twirling on a treadmill while other patrons jog normally at machines nearby. Youtube user David Wilson posted the video online with comment, 'I see this guy dancing almost every day on the treadmill. Had to share. Enjoy!'

Since 2011 Matthew Hawskley, 25, a welder from Cambridgeshire, has survived heart attacks, his heart stopping, a broken neck, testicular cancer, MRSA and pneumonia. His hairdresser girlfriend, Avril Maleham (pictured, right), 20, was faced with life and death decisions when he was too ill to make them himself. He has now made a full recovery (right) and describes himself as the 'luckiest unlucky person in Britain'.

For almost half a century, many of the girls in the Ilkley Grammar School hockey team, main picture, have stayed close. Despite their lives going separate ways - some have enjoyed long successful careers, others concentrated on raising a family, a couple went through divorces and one even managed a rock band - the bond from those happy times in Yorkshire has always remained. But now Denise MacGregor, bottom right, will get a poorer pension than Linda Hull, top right, simply because she's five months older.

NEW Not much training was required for the 55-yard dash around Princes Park in Burntwood, Staffordshire, and all of the 390 competitors completed it in times ranging from seven seconds to less than a minute. Organisers are now hoping Guinness World Of Records will officially recognise it as the shortest ever fun run.

Charlie Toogood was yesterday back at work, pictured left, on the Camel estuary where he managed to stop an out of control speedboat which had thrown six members of the Milligan family, pictured top right, into the water - leaving two of them dead and two severely injured. Sky TV executive Nick Milligan, 51, and his eight-year-old daughter Emily were killed after they were run over by the out-of-control vessel, pictured bottom left. His yoga-teacher wife Victoria, 41, and their four-year-old son Kit both face losing their legs from 'life-changing' wounds caused by the £60,000 craft's propeller. Officials praised his actions, saying there would certainly have been more fatalities without Mr Toogood's help.

The huge vessel crashed into the tower as it was leaving Genoa in the north west of Italy last night. Seven people have been killed, five taken to hospital and several are still unaccounted for. But rescue workers were offered a beacon of hope after 50-year-old switchboard operator Maurizio Potanza was pulled from the rubble alive 12 hours after the disaster.

Christi and Dave Cason, from Lake Elsinore, California, were prescribed the drug Clomid after suffering two miscarriages. The couple already have 16 children, nine boys and seven girls, aged 23 down to two. But Christi, 41, said they would like to have 20 children in total. She said: 'I don't think I'm addicted to pregnancy. We just never felt that our family was complete'. She added that her labours have always been 'relatively easy' and that she never gets morning sickness.

Elirito Tataua, 40 and Teikauea Tegiaa, 20, spent a month at sea, surviving on rain water and raw fish, after drifting 420 miles from Kiribati's Gilbert Islands. The pair were on their 14ft boat when the engine broke down and strong winds began pushing them towards the Solomon Islands, where they were picked up by a US ship four weeks later.

The amazing image, captured on May 3rd, shows a solar prominence, a loop of red hot plasma which remains attached to the sun, and appeared just as a solar flare was subsiding. Experts say it is another sign the sun is 'waking up' as it approaches its 11 year solar maximum, which is due later this year.

Ben Miller, 18, and Adam Flint, 27, rode down the 140ft high slope in a breathtaking stunt in Perthshire, Scotland. They flew down the 70 degree drop in a bid to raise awareness of the cycling opportunities in the area - although they admit their ride was not for beginners. The pair performed a wall ride - cycling out from the grassy bank horizontally across the Lawers Dam on Lochan na Lairige before turning down the near vertical drop.

NEW The carcass of a mysterious creature with jagged teeth and a gaping jaw has has been found on a beach off the coast of New Zealand. Marine experts are trying to determine what animal the nine-metre long carcass is, although suggestions include saltwater crocodile, a whale, or something more prehistoric.

Deng Zongcheng, 13, was diagnosed with polio shortly after he was born in rural Lilou village, Henan province, China, and lost the use of his legs before he even learned to walk. But determined Deng nevertheless learned to crawl and, by the age of six, eventually learned to walk on his hands. By the time he was 12 he was also an excellent climber. Now Deng is hoping that all of the publicity that has generated interest in his case might also lead to further treatment which might one day enable him to walk.

Tied up with ropes and a mish-mash of planks, a grinning scout dangles precariously off the ground as his companions heave him up the wall. In another shot, a scout perches on top of an alarmingly rickety tower, cobbled together from wooden poles, while a boy clambers his way up.

Police were called as the unidentified motorist reportedly stabbed another driver after a minor traffic altercation. It has been claimed he also stabbed two passengers who ran to the driver's aid during the incident, in China. Police allegedly used wooden polices to attack the man after he locked himself his car. He was then removed from the car, pinned down and handcuffed before medics were allowed to check him. But it has been claimed that he had already died from his injuries.

Sssh! Don't tell the health and safety inspector. These workers in northern Siberia have come up with a resourceful way to get across a fast-flowing river - but there's no doubt it breaks a few rules. The bridge builders are shown in this video traversing the icy water in the buckets of two giant excavators, leaping from one to the next as the giant machines swivel them across.